Richard Coyle

Richard Coyle
Born	(1972-02-27) 27 February 1972 Sheffield, England
Years active	1998- present
Spouse(s)	Georgia Mackenzie (2003-10); divorced
Children	1

Richard Coyle (born 27 February, 1972) is an English actor.

Early and personal life

Coyle was born in Sheffield, England. Coyle is the second youngest of 5 sons. Their father was a builder. He began his acting career after a stint working on a ferry entertaining passengers, where he was told by a theatre director that he had a talent and should pursue it further. He graduated in Languages and Philosophy from the University of York in 1995 and was then accepted into Bristol's prestigious Old Vic Theatre school, graduating in 1998, the same year as his close friends Dean Lennox Kelly and Oded Fehr.

Coyle was married to actress Georgia Mackenzie with whom he has a daughter, Purdy (b. 2008). He has been in a relationship with actress Ruth Bradley since early 2011.

Film and television work

He began by appearing in such television programmes as Lorna Doone, as John Ridd and Evelyn Waugh's wartime saga Sword of Honour, and in Mike Leigh's film Topsy-Turvy. He played Mr. Coxe in 1999's BBC version of Wives and Daughters. In 2000, Coyle's big break arrived in the form of the character Jeff Murdock in the comedy Coupling. In 2003 he chose not to return to Coupling for its fourth series, and refused requests to return for a "goodbye episode". In a 2005 interview, Coyle stated this was to avoid typecasting:

I'm very proud to have been part of Coupling and very grateful for the chance to play Jeff but I was very keen that that character didn’t stick with me forever. I’m an actor and I want to be an actor when I’m 60. It’s a lifelong process; why cut it off by boxing yourself into a little pigeonhole early on?

He also starred in the short-lived 2002-2003 BBC show Strange, and had roles in the films Human Traffic, Franklyn, and A Good Year. He appeared in the new special episode of Cracker: Nine Eleven in October 2006 (TV) and starred in The Whistleblowers on ITV 1. He also starred in the 2001 version of Othello as Michael Cassio.

In 2004, Coyle played the role of Alcock, body servant to John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, in The Libertine alongside Johnny Depp. He appeared in Mike Newell's 2010 movie Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, playing Jake Gyllenhaal's older brother, the ambiguous Crown Prince Tus.

He was cast as the lead role, Moist von Lipwig, in the film Going Postal, based on the book of the same name by Terry Pratchett. This was broadcast on television in May 2010.

Coyle had a leading role in Renny Harlin's movie Georgia, a.k.a. 5 Days of War, about the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia over the territory of South Ossetia. In September 2011, Coyle appeared as William Winthrop, in Madonna's feature-directorial debut W.E. about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. He appeared as Garda Ciarán O'Shea in Grabbers, the Irish comedy monster movie. Coyle also plays Wallace in Outpost: Black Sun, the sequel to the 2008 British horror film Outpost, and the lead of drug pusher Frank in the 2012 English-language remake of Nicolas Winding Refn’s 1996 cult classic Pusher.

In 2012, Coyle joined the cast of the USA Network show Covert Affairs as Simon Fischer, an FSB agent and love interest for Piper Perabo's Annie Walker. His character recurred until halfway through season three.

In 2014, NBC began airing the series Crossbones, with Coyle as Tom Lowe, who is assigned to kill the pirate Blackbeard (played by John Malkovich).

Stage roles

He was cast as the lead in Peter Gill's 2002 stage premiere of The York Realist, and later in the Donmar Warehouse production of the play Proof, in London, alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, and on the success of this he was cast in Patrick Marber's reworking of August Strindberg's play After Miss Julie with Kelly Reilly and Helen Baxendale. From September to November 2004, Coyle played the title role in Michael Grandage's production of Friedrich Schiller's Don Carlos which then transferred to the West End from January to April 2005. The cast also included Derek Jacobi, Peter Eyre and Una Stubbs. The V&A theatre archive has a copy of a film of the production which can be privately viewed. He was in Peter Gill's production of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger at the Theatre Royal, Bath from August to September 2006. In 2008 Richard starred in Harold Pinter's The Lover and The Collection at the Comedy Theatre in London, alongside Charlie Cox and Gina McKee.

In 2010 he played John in Mark Haddon's play Polar Bears at the Donmar Warehouse.

His own theatre company was scheduled to debut at the refurbished Arcola Theatre in Dalston, London in March 2013, with Coyle starring alongside his friend and co-founder Rafe Spall in Simon Bent's play The Associate.

In 2014 he played MacDuff in the Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford directed Macbeth at the Park Avenue Armory.

Other media

Coyle played Keats in the game Folklore and has also narrated the following audio books: At The Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft, Resistance by Owen Sheers, and the H.I.V.E. series of novels by Mark Walden.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1998	Macbeth	Loon	TV movie
	Hetty Wainthropp Investigates	Dr. Miles Miller	TV series (1 episode: "A Minor Operation")
	The Life and Crimes of William Palmer	John Parsons Cook	TV movie
	What Rats Won't Do	Journalist
1999	Greenstone	Sir Geoffrey Halford	TV series
	Up Rising	Martin Marr	TV mini-series
	Human Traffic	Andy	Feature film
	Topsy-Turvy	Mr. Hammond	Feature film
	Wives and Daughters	Mr. Coxe	TV mini-series (2 episodes)
2000	Hearts and Bones	Will Stenner	TV movie
	Dalziel and Pascoe	Martin Hallingsworth	TV series (1 episode: "A Sweeter Lazarus")
	Lorna Doone	John Ridd	TV movie
	Coupling	Jeffrey "Jeff" Murdock	TV series (22 episodes: 2000-2002)
2001	Sword of Honour	Trimmer McTavish	TV movie
	Young Blades	Count Morlas
	Happy Now	Joe Jones
	Othello	Michael Cass	TV movie
2002	Strange	John Strange	TV movie
2003	Blight	John Blight	Cornish language short
	Friday Night In	Ben	short
	Strange	John Strange	TV series (6 episode)
2004	Gunpowder, Treason & Plot	Catesby	TV movie
	The Libertine	Alcock	Feature Film
2006	Ultra	Cryptic Man	TV movie
	The Best Man	Michael Sheldrake	TV movie
	Cracker	D.I. Walters	TV series
	A Good Year	Amis	Feature film
2007	The History of Mr. Polly	Jim	TV movie
	Folklore	Keats (voice: English version)	video game
	The Whistleblowers	Ben Graham	TV series (6 episodes)
2008	Franklyn	Dan	Feature film
	Blight	John Blight	Cornish-language Short
	The Pro	Tony Kirby	Short
2009	Octavia	Gareth Llewellyn	TV movie
2010	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	Tus	Feature Film
	Terry Pratchett's Going Postal	Moist Von Lipwig	TV movie
	Fable III	Petitioner (voice)	Video game
2011	5 Days of War	Sebastian Ganz	Feature film
	W.E.	William	Feature film
2012	Grabbers	Garda Ciarán O'Shea	Feature film
	Outpost 2: Black Sun	Wallace	Feature film
	Pusher	Frank	Feature film
	Life of Crime	Detective Inspector	Lead Role
	Covert Affairs	Simon Fischer	Recurring role
2013	The Food Guide to Love	Oliver Byrne	Feature film
2014	Crossbones	Tom Lowe	TV series
2015	A.D.: The Bible Continues	Caiaphas	TV miniseries

External links

• Richard Coyle at the Internet Movie Database
• "Richard Coyle Talks Tom Lowe" - video of short interview with Coyle about Crossbones role